Network Music HDD?

snake1

Does anyone have some experience using a networked external HD and streaming music to their receiver? I want to make a network drive anyway as a go between with all our devices and also my music storage. Will the Onkyo find a wifi network drive like that? Connecting the HDD to a router via USB is my plan btw. Ideas?

Denzel

I use a Netgear ReadyNAS 314 for my networked music storage. It is 8TB (4 x 3TB in RAID5) there are many ways to share the content via the network. Your Onkyo uses simple SMB protocol and should see the NAS on the network. The ReadyNAS has simple web based setup. I have an Integra DHC 40.2 (similar insides to your Onkyo) pre/pro and it works beautifully for streaming music. To be honest this is all based on what works best for your needs, there are no hard and fast rules on how you share your content across a network. USB will be iffy on speed, I have a USB3.0 drive connected directly to my Mac Mini and it is plenty fast, but the capacity is not there and sharing it through the Mac is slower than a NAS on the network. What is your router? Like an Apple Airport Extreme? ( I know they have USB on them). I have such a large drive because all of my music is either FLAC or WAV, looks like that is your choice as well. Hard drives (even halfway decent ones) are very inexpensive now. Buy more than you need.

Netgear has a whole line of their ReadyNAS products.. all different features and capacities. Drobo makes nice NAS devices as well.

steveinaz

The possibilties are practically endless. Lots of stand-a-lone network players, streaming devices, multi-purpose BluRay players that will either stream or allow direct connection of HDD/USB flash drives, etc.

It depends on the approach you want to take; ie, PC driven, network player driven, streaming, etc. I don't like my system being so dependent on computers/networks so I direct connect a usb hard drive w/flac files to my Oppo BR.

D'prived

If the networked drive is shared the Onkyo should find it. Don't know if this is an issue for you but you may want to know that Onkyo receivers don't support gapless playback. I believe the 2014 models will.

snake1

Denzel wrote: »

I use a Netgear ReadyNAS 314 for my networked music storage. It is 8TB (4 x 3TB in RAID5) there are many ways to share the content via the network. Your Onkyo uses simple SMB protocol and should see the NAS on the network. The ReadyNAS has simple web based setup. I have an Integra DHC 40.2 (similar insides to your Onkyo) pre/pro and it works beautifully for streaming music. To be honest this is all based on what works best for your needs, there are no hard and fast rules on how you share your content across a network. USB will be iffy on speed, I have a USB3.0 drive connected directly to my Mac Mini and it is plenty fast, but the capacity is not there and sharing it through the Mac is slower than a NAS on the network. What is your router? Like an Apple Airport Extreme? ( I know they have USB on them). I have such a large drive because all of my music is either FLAC or WAV, looks like that is your choice as well. Hard drives (even halfway decent ones) are very inexpensive now. Buy more than you need.

Netgear has a whole line of their ReadyNAS products.. all different features and capacities. Drobo makes nice NAS devices as well.

I have a router but it doesn't have a USB connection I can use. Any suggestions on some that won't break the bank? I have started getting all music on CD and ripping it to FLAC and also 320mp3 (for use in my phone). I have a 500gb right now that isn't even close to getting full. There were few albums I wanted to buy again to rip and keep in good quality, have to start somewhere though.

steveinaz wrote: »

The possibilties are practically endless. Lots of stand-a-lone network players, streaming devices, multi-purpose BluRay players that will either stream or allow direct connection of HDD/USB flash drives, etc.

It depends on the approach you want to take; ie, PC driven, network player driven, streaming, etc. I don't like my system being so dependent on computers/networks so I direct connect a usb hard drive w/flac files to my Oppo BR.

I just want to have a HDD on the network connected all the time for backing up and for storing music, docs, pics, videos, whatever in case of computer crash. Streaming my music from it and getting the HDD and wires associated out of my entertainment center are a bonus!

D'prived wrote: »

If the networked drive is shared the Onkyo should find it. Don't know if this is an issue for you but you may want to know that Onkyo receivers don't support gapless playback. I believe the 2014 models will.

Gapless playback?? Does that mean there will be a break between each song or gaps during the song??

D'prived

snake1 wrote: »

Gapless playback?? Does that mean there will be a break between each song or gaps during the song??

Pink Floyd DSOTM is a good example. It won't play seamlessly like the CD will. There will be gaps in between the songs. Any live album will be the same way.

steveinaz

For reference, I have 398 CD's (flac) on my 500GB HDD, and that amount uses about 50% of the drives capacity.

snake1

Gapless won't bother me then so no worries there.

steveinaz

Gapless play is when one song leads right into the next, without the typical gap of quiet space. A player that can't do gapless play, inserts a short moment of silence between the songs that would normally blend together.

Some times it can be irratating, and mess up the normal flow of the music.

PrazVT

snake1 wrote: »

Does anyone have some experience using a networked external HD and streaming music to their receiver? I want to make a network drive anyway as a go between with all our devices and also my music storage. Will the Onkyo find a wifi network drive like that? Connecting the HDD to a router via USB is my plan btw. Ideas?

Depends - if the Onkyo can directly browse your LAN's shared folders, then that is one way. Otherwise, if your router's media server function is turned on and pointed to the connected hard disk, that server name should show up as well. Provided the router's media server function supports all your file formats, you should be good.

D'prived

steveinaz wrote: »

For reference, I have 398 CD's (flac) on my 500GB HDD, and that amount uses about 50% of the drives capacity.

I have approx. 2000 CD's (uncompressed FLAC) and I'm hitting right at the 2TB mark.

snake1

Thanks for the info folks! Will start shopping around for routers soon!

D'prived

snake1 wrote: »

Thanks for the info folks! Will start shopping around for routers soon!

No problem... good luck. Hope everything works out the way you want.